Meet Loops Artist Hanneke van Broekhoven

Hanneke van Broekhoven is a Dutch artist based in Nijmegen. She works in a range of media, predominently creating sculptures from textile and steel. Here she tells us more about her involvement with the Loops exhibition.

I combine textile with steel, because I like the contrast of refinement and roughness and also because the metal structures elevate and support the limp textile elements. I was very lucky to find a studio with a forge and moved in there in September 2024. I followed a couple of forging lessons and now I am learning by doing. Hannah Robson suggested creating modules with hooks that can easily be connected to the modules that other artists have made. I built on that idea and started to forge and weld metal hooks and loops to connect textile pieces and rusty chains from Sunny Bank Mills.

I also like to reuse materials. For example garden hoses to create objects that look organic, first cutting them up in rings and then tying those together. The shapes and forms were inspired by life under a microscope, like plankton and viruses. Years ago I collected and cut up a lot of hoses. I made two installations and then left the rest of the rings boxed for years. I am glad I kept them because they fit well in the theme of this exhibition: the continuity of the little loops, the reference to expanding cell structures and to life in the sea – the origin of all life on earth.

How did you get involved with the exhibition Loops?

Monika Loster asked me if I liked to join. As I am very fond of Monika I immediately said yes!

How did you find responding to the theme of loops?

Monika and I thought the theme Loops and Continuums was a theme that enables many different approaches. The theme can be taken literally: in textile arts and crafts a lot of loops are made with one single thread. You can also think of loops and continuums in human and natural history, in natural processes and in life in general. There are also loops in the creative process and we intend the communal artwork to be a continuum. (A continuum is something that keeps on going, changing slowly over time, like the continuum of the four seasons.)

What loops inspired your work in the exhibition?

The cycle of life: growth and decay are equally important phases in the cycle. We tend to see decay as a negative transformation, but it facilitates growth and change. Continuity and loops in natural history and in biology. For individual pieces, like Say no Evil, the loops in my personal experiences have been a source of inspiration.

What is special to you about the exhibition Loops?

The ambition to make one communal artwork with six different artists. It requires a lot of communication and coordination. It was an experiment. We all tried to be open to each other’s ideas and to the outcome. I think we all noticed at least once during the process that it was hard to let go of our own idea when the project was taking another turn then anticipated.

For me that was an emotional experience and it gave me an important insight. I made all these metal loops with rings and hooks and imagined it would serve to connect and support the works the others had made. Then after a couple of hours working in small groups, I noticed a lot of my rings were assembled together with the beautiful pieces others had made, but not one metal element was connected to another. Parts of me were scattered all over the place. I tried to group some of my pieces and connect them to somebody else’s but it did not work. That was a disappointment. I thought I had made something useless. I knew in advance it would not look right to physically connect everything we had made together, but I thought at least some parts could be clustered and the rest would connect visually. After a lovely dinner with the group (staff and artists) I was alone and meditated on it. I realised all of my colleagues had taken a part of me and cared for it. Everybody connected to it in a beautiful way. And visually the metal parts tied everything together.

Have you ever worked collaboratively as an artist before? What have been the challenges and joys this time, or for the first time?

I had a collaboration with Reo Ma, a fashion designer and artist based in Hong Kong. We never met in person but we exchanged ideas in chat. I sent a box filled with textile hands and a head to Hong Kong – what a sight for the custom’s officer! – and he integrated it into an installation. I have also taken part in international exhibitions before, but that required less involvement. I didn’t travel there and just sent one of two pieces.

What has been your experience of creating art at Sunny Bank Mills?

I love Sunny Bank Mills: the industrial history and the new creative community that is now thriving there. Growth and decay exist next to each other. That has been very inspiring for our Loops theme. We used the colour scheme and the materials from the Old Woollen for a new piece of art. All the people I have met at Sunny Bank Mills have been very kind, welcoming, supportive and professional. I am very grateful for this opportunity.

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